Haldeman instructed Dean to get more information on Maheu and O’Brien: “You and Chuck Colson should get together and come up with a way to leak the appropriate information. . . . However, we should keep Bob Bennett and Bebe out of it at all costs.” In other words, the White House was looking for information to embarrass O’Brien because of his Hughes connection and how much bribery they did in Washington. The political strategy was incredibly short-sighted! As if Nixon had never had any dirty dealings with Hughes. Soon it started to look like the change of command in the Hughes empire was going to threaten the White House far more than it might hurt O’Brien. Maheu and Meier would see to that.
1/26/1971